bogusman

...and then Caz, if you think the sound in Live at Pompeii is drugged, what do you say about stuff like White Light/White Heat by the V.U.? (okay, they were more into speed-amphetamines than LSD, but I don't think they were very subtle about it...) or in the more strictly psych realm, the Grateful Dead’s Live/Dead??? or Chrome, have you ever heard them, man? (according to the writer, one of the best psychedelic legacies left from the golden 60s to the rotten 70s)

In 1971, the "drugged rock musician" discourse was already well established (and somewhat trendy), just look at the messes (real?) that Jagger made or Lou Reed's ostentations... so I don't really see the scandal. I don't understand one thing, though... you throw shit at punks and the rich kids who go to CCCP concerts wearing Che shirts, and then you say "how cool and lazy these assholes are," when they displayed similar attitudes and then drove around in Bentleys and Aston Martins through their family estates...?

I watched Live at Pompeii. I don’t know it by heart but I’ve seen it. Remember, man, it’s always cinema, and the four stoned idiots could be part of a calculation; however, they might also be stoned, but you can tell that the drugs of '71 were of lower quality than those of '67... I saw The Wall movie ages ago, and I remember the beautiful animations interrupted by boring scenes; anyway, I’ll suspend judgment because too much time has passed. The talk about Tommy is a bit more complex, because the '69 album is great, but I prefer the live rendition from "Live at Leeds". I liked the movie a lot (I watched it when I was 17, now I’m 32...), I’ve always appreciated Ken Russell from the early '70s, even though the rearranged pieces for the film convinced me a lot less.

for odra: sorry but I hadn't read the previous posts (or at least not all of them)... Once in a while I’m ALMOST in complete agreement with caz; "THEY HAVE MADE ALBUMS WORTH A QUARTER OF A QUARTER OF A QUARTER OF A QUARTER OF A QUARTER OF A QUARTER OF A NAIL OF SYD. The Floyd stop at Meddle, return in The Wall, and disappear forever." Too bad that those from teuòl are no longer the PF but practically a backing band for uòters. And I’ve said enough on this topic. Regarding the relationship of the PF post-Syd with drugs, and about their lysergic quotes, it seems to me that the playfulness around Meddle is much more "literary" than lived through the skin; like "bourgeois" types who have already had their turn and would think twice before puking on their beautiful Persian rugs in their lovely family villas... but since the public wanted the psychedelic references...

exaggerated odradek... more than a fool, he was someone who needed his Pinotto (or his Gianni, I never understood it). If only we had Gianni and Pinotto like that today...

Sgt Pepper was just one example, given that we were talking about the Beatles. I could say the same thing about Soft Cell, or Amon Duul, or XTC (they don't really fit, I know): I see "arrangements" as a garment that reveals the period in which the record was produced, the trends that were all the rage and that inevitably permeated the conception of the work. But in the end, they must be considered an integral part of the work itself.

Um... excuse me for interrupting... "arrangements are just a garnish"??? As I see it, in rock, they are an integral part of the work, just like the music "you throw in." Sure, this does make a record feel somewhat dated: but I believe every work should be listened to by trying to immerse oneself in the mood and the environment in which it was conceived. The greatness of certain albums, take Sgt. Pepper, comes from the perfect blend of melodic content and subsequent arrangements, and it is impossible to separate the two in a post-analysis, precisely because it is the whole that is still able to convey something even forty years later...

Look who it is... the old Stan. The review is great, but I've never been able to consider this album a masterpiece; perhaps it's because the lyrics are a bit too challenging for my barely more than high school English, or maybe it's those sounds that now feel a bit too much like the '80s... To be honest, I never jumped out of my seat even with the Wall of Voodoo. Don't get me wrong, the combination of Morricone and synth rock is genius, but I’ve always found them a bit dull...

oops. as usual, I forget the grades...

beautiful! beautiful! beautiful! well done ege! (I need to get busy because you're stealing all my reviews!)
But be careful, because the snobby critic and pain in the ass ignored this album back then because the previous 3 albums were HUGE!!! "Ultravox!" and "Ha! Ha! Ha!" are indispensable masterpieces, while "Systems of Romance" is, in my opinion, a bit more subdued. Vienna, although a stunning album, somewhat lives off the insights of John Foxx...